Could European Union Ban Antigay Speech?

By Neal Broverman March 15, 2013, 12:15 a.m.

The European Parliament on Thursday called for homophobic and transphobic speech to be banned throughout the European Union.

The European Union already bans racist and xenophobic speech and hate crimes; LGBT advocates have been pushing for antigay and antitrans verbiage and attacks to be criminalized as well. This new resolution from the European Parliament adds to the pressure on the EU.

"This is an urgently needed piece of EU legislation which we have been asking for years," Martin Christensen, cochair of ILGA-Europe's executive board, said in a statement. "The EU Commission needs to move from promising statements to concrete action and propose the changes and ban hate crime and speech against LGBTI people. We are truly grateful to the European Parliament to maintaining the pressure on other EU institutions to act."